


Rainy Day Love

by beaten_eggs



Category: GOT7
Genre: 2Jae, Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-01-07 12:41:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12233064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beaten_eggs/pseuds/beaten_eggs
Summary: Jaebum and Youngjae meet one day after school on a rainy day. Conscious of each other, feelings develop.-A high school AU. Everyone is a bad student.





	1. Encounter

Youngjae rubs his tired eyes as he walks to leave the school building, the hallways empty since most of the students have gone home by this time. Around halfway through the school day he decided to skip the last half of his classes to take a nap at a stairwell landing that wasn’t normally used; he originally found it by looking to get to the roof of the school building but the door was locked and so he opted to just hang out in the landing instead. Although, today he slept well past the dismissal of school and was only just now heading home.

Looking out a window as he gets closer to the exit, Youngjae sees that it has started to rain and he feels relieved that he knows he has an umbrella in his school bag. He turns a corner and sees another student standing in front of the doors to leave the school and Youngjae stops in his tracks, startled at suddenly seeing someone else here at this time. He quietly walks back to the corner to glance at the student from afar. Youngjae squints at the boy, feeling like he has seen him around before but couldn’t place a name to him. The boy rubs his neck and opens the door to look at the rainfall and then closes the door again and paces around muttering to himself.

“I got my hair permed not too long ago but it should be ok if it gets wet now, right?” The student muttered under his breath as if to convince himself, while touching his hair.

Youngjae gets a short glance at the boy’s side profile as he paced around and thought to himself in half envy and half admiration, _wow doesn’t this guy look too cool…_ Youngjae quietly took his umbrella out of his bag and wondered if he should offer to share his umbrella with him. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he tried to decide while different thoughts went through his mind, _I mean we don’t really know each other so would that be weird, sharing an umbrella with a stranger?_ He shook his head, _no isn’t sharing an umbrella with someone in the first place kinda embarrassing?_ He pursed his lips together in contemplation as he looked back to see the cool looking student open the door about to rush out into the rain.

“Wait, hold on!” Youngjae shouts loudly, moving out from the corner.

The boy jumps with a start and looks back, surprised at the shout from the sudden appearance of someone.

Youngjae’s eyes widen as he makes eye contact with the other, getting a full look at his face now and laughs nervously as his mind races again with trying to make the decision of whether to offer to share his umbrella or not, _would we both even fit under the umbrella or would it turn into that situation where I tilt my umbrella a bit more to his side and my shoulder gets wet and he notices and thinks I’m cool or is that too cheesey to happen in real life? Oh man what do I do-_

“Um,” Youngjae pauses before turning his gaze down to the umbrella in his hand as he held it out to the boy “If you want you could have my umbrella.”

The student’s face relaxes but then his face turns into a look of worry as he says “But what about you then?”

Youngjae looks back at him and stammers a bit before responding with a smile “Oh. You don’t have to worry about me; I have another umbrella in my desk.” _Probably,_ he thinks to himself, trying to remember if he did actually have another spare umbrella in his desk or not.

“I see,” The boy nods to himself and Youngjae finds himself staring at the dangling earrings the boy was wearing when they moved as he tilted his head and continued speaking “I would’ve suggested we shared but I guess since you have another one we don’t have to.”

Youngjae is speechless at this.

The boy says a goodbye along with a quick word of thanks and leaves the school with the umbrella, leaving behind Youngjae who was still stunned into silence. Youngjae replayed the scene in his head, thinking about what could have been different if he had gone with his gut since the beginning and as he remembers the other boy’s face, Youngjae lets out a small gasp as he finally remembered the other boy’s name.

“Oh man,” Youngjae groans as he walks to his classroom to see if he has another umbrella and spoke aloud to himself “I knew I’ve seen him around. Isn’t his name Jaebum?”

Youngjae had never spoken to Jaebum before but was pretty sure that was his name because he remembers hearing other people call him that. He was pretty sure Jaebum was a year above him too so the only times he’s really seen him is outside of class around the school. Youngjae curses to himself for looking like an idiot in front of such a cool guy.

Youngjae got to the empty classroom and walked over to his desk, placing a hand on it and closing his eyes, bracing himself in hopes that he will find an umbrella there and he opens the desk. He opens his eyes to find that there was no umbrella in his desk.

 _I missed out on sharing an umbrella with a hot guy and now I missed out on having an umbrella all together_ , he thought to himself in frustration as there was a loud crack of thunder heard from outside. Putting his hands to his face, Youngjae let out a frustrated yell at his bad luck.

Finally making his way back to the doors of the school, Youngjae sighed through his nose as he opened the doors to see that it was raining even harder than it was earlier. Bracing himself, he dashed out the door, aiming to get home as quickly as possible through the storm.

After running for a bit, thoroughly soaked by the rain, he slows his pace to catch his breath and looks up ahead of him to see Jaebum walking not too far ahead of him and Youngjae stops in his tracks. Panicking, not wanting to be caught being soaked like this after assuring Jaebum he had a spare umbrella, Youngjae looked for a place to hide and opted for squatting behind a nearby trash bin. From his hiding spot, Youngjae peered at Jaebum’s distant figure and decided to take a different, although longer, way home to avoid running into him. Brushing his wet hair from his face, Youngjae thought to himself, _well at least he won’t have to get wet with this rain_.

Jaebum walked home slowly as he thought about the guy who gave his umbrella to him, thinking that the guy was probably younger than him and that he must be a nice person to offer an umbrella to someone he’s never met. Remembering how even though the boy looked nervous, he spoke loudly to him, and Jaebum smiled as he thought to himself, _what a cute kid_. Giving the umbrella a spin in his hand, Jaebum realized he didn’t ask for the boy’s name and wondered if he seemed rude to accept something without even asking for his name. He was planning to give the umbrella back the next day, but without knowing the boy’s name or which class he was in that would be difficult to do. _Maybe he’ll look for me instead?_ Jaebum thought to himself but then stopped walking when he realized that he didn’t give his name either, so it would probably be just as difficult for Jaebum to be found as it would be to find the other boy. Looking to the ground, Jaebum came to a conclusion: _I’m an idiot, aren’t I?_

As he began to take a step to continue his path home, a strong gust of wind blew in his direction and blows the umbrella inside out. Jaebum lets out a startled voice as the rain starts falling on him and when he notices the umbrella is inside out, the umbrella is knocked out of his loose grip. Swearing under his breath, he chases after the umbrella as the rain pelts harder on him and just when it’s almost in his grasp, the umbrella hits against a fallen tree branch and a large hole is pierced through the umbrella. Sighing in disbelief at this turn of events, Jaebum picks up the broken umbrella.

“Fuck,” Jaebum deadpans as he stares at it “I guess I can’t return it like this.”

Moving to throw it away in a nearby trashcan, Jaebum hesitates. _I don’t know. I feel kinda bad throwing it away even if it’s like this_ , he thinks to himself and decides to try to close the umbrella the best he can and carries it in his hand as he walks home, rain falling mercilessly onto him.

 

The next day, Youngjae drags his feet as he walks to school, feeling sluggish at both having just woken up and also feeling congested. Feeling snot drip from his nose, he uses his sleeve to wipe his nose and is suddenly clapped on the back by two hands.

“Gross,” the boy appearing to his left says with a look of disgust “Use a tissue.”

“Shut up Bambam,” Youngjae says in response, slightly irritated and wipes his nose with his sleeve again as they all continued walking to school.

“Yugyeom, don’t you have any tissues to give him?” Bambam asked the boy to Youngjae’s right

“None. I don’t even get sick in the first place,” Yugyeom responded smugly

“Must be nice,” Youngjae said flatly before he sneezed loudly and continued speaking “I guess that’s what I get for walking home in the rain.”

Yugyeom narrowed his eyes at Youngjae in confusion and asked “I was already home when it started raining, where were you?”

“School,” Youngjae responded and when the other two boys gave him puzzled looks he explained “I overslept when I skipped.”

“You know if you’re going to skip, can’t you find something more fun to do with you time instead of sleeping,” Bambam said with disappointment in his voice

Youngjae opened his mouth to defend how he decides to spend his time but he suddenly felt his hood being tugged from behind and only lets out a choked sound. Turning to see who pulled his hood, he sees a boy smiling pleasantly at him.

“Oh, Jinyoung-hyung,” Youngjae says, recognizing the upperclassman he was somewhat acquainted with

“Youngjae,” Jinyoung says, his voice sounding a bit teasing, still holding onto Youngjae’s hood “You know your blazer is inside out, right?”

Yugyeom and Bambam burst into laughter as they start grabbing his blazer and pointing out the visible stitching of the blazer exposed. Youngjae looks down at himself as Jinyoung released his hold on Youngjae’s hood. Seeing that it really was inside out, flustered, Youngjae takes off the blazer he wore over his hoodie and starts turning it right side in.

“At least now the snot you wiped on your sleeves won’t be visible,” Yugyeom teased as Youngjae puts his blazer back on

Youngjae turns to Jinyoung and thanks him and Jinyoung smiles and just gives a dismissive wave as if to say it was no big deal. Then without saying anything, Jinyoung reaches into his pocket and gives Youngjae a small pack of tissue and starts walking ahead of him before Youngjae can thank him again.

“Is he your mother?” Bambam asked with a laugh and Youngjae didn’t respond as he blew his nose into one of the tissues.

As Jinyoung entered through the doors of the school, he was immediately shouted a greeting by his friend Jackson. Jinyoung looked towards him and saw him smiling broadly and making a dramatic gesture, earning laughter from the group of people he was with and Jinyoung gave a wave in response as he headed to his classroom. 

After about two hours after class had started, the door of the classroom opened and Jinyoung didn’t bother turning to look who entered the class because he already knew who it was. The teacher, visibly annoyed, started to reprimand the student.

“Im Jaebum, you-“ The teacher started

“Yeah, yeah I’m late I know,” Jaebum interrupted him and gave a dismissive wave of his hand as he sat down in his desk next to Jinyoung. The teacher sighed in resignation, not bothering to pursue the conversation, and continued the lesson.

Jinyoung notices that Jaebum’s voice sounded weird, as if his nose was congested, and then he turns to glance at Jaebum and catches him loudly sniff the snot back into his nose. Jinyoung makes a disgusted face and wonders to himself if there’s a cold going around.

When it’s break time, Jinyoung turns to the desk next to him only to see that Jaebum is asleep and he gives a kick to the leg of the desk to wake him up. Jaebum lifts his head quickly, startled at the sudden attack.

“What the hell, you’re sick, too?” Jinyoung asks in disbelief

“What do you mean ‘too’?” Jaebum asks as he rubs his eyes and continues “And yeah, I got caught in the rain yesterday.”

“Oh because you stayed late getting scolded by a teacher, right?” Jinyoung says, amused.

Jaebum glared at Jinyoung for teasing him but nodded in response.

The door of the classroom opens as someone from a different class comes in and makes a beeline toward Jinyoung.

“Hey Mark,” Jinyoung rests his chin on his hand as he greets the student “Did you come here to copy my homework?”

Mark grins sheepishly as he pulls up a seat between Jaebum and Jinyoung. “I’ll buy you lunch if you let me copy,” he offers while putting his hands together in an attempt to persuade Jinyoung.

Jinyoung hummed in contemplation before taking out the assignment with speaking his decision “Fine.”

As Mark gives Jinyoung a bright smile with words of thanks, Jaebum asks in an offended tone “How come you never let me copy your homework?”

Jinyoung raises his eyebrow at him and scoffs before saying “Would you even bother taking the time to copy it in the first place?”

“That’s true. You never do your homework,” Mark agrees and points at Jaebum before stating a bit proudly “At least I do one assignment a week.”

“At least I can pass my tests,” Jaebum retorts and coughs loudly into his hand.

“You’re so noisy. Why didn’t you use an umbrella?” Jinyoung asked while scooting his chair a bit farther from Jaebum as he coughed.

“Oh some kid gave me him umbrella but it broke while I was walking home,” Jaebum explained, recalling the events of yesterday.

Mark looked up from his homework and gave Jaebum a cold look “You broke his umbrella? What the fuck, Jaebum...”

“No I didn’t. It broke by itself,” Jaebum defended himself.

“I can’t believe you’re destroying other people’s property…” Jinyoung said with a disappointed shake of his head.

Annoyed, Jaebum started to respond before getting interrupted by the voice of someone who just entered the room.

“Whose stuff did Jaebum break?” Jackson asked as he sat himself opposite of Mark.

“That’s right, who was the pitiful kid whose umbrella got destroyed by you?” Jinyoung asked

Bristling at the relentless questioning, Jaebum tried to answer calmly as he fiddled with his earring “I didn’t get his name.”

Jackson and Jinyoung gasped comically in unison as Mark clicked his tongue in disappointment before saying “Taking advantage of a guy whose name you didn’t even know.”

“How cold hearted,” Jackson said dramatically as he gestured at Jaebum “You just can’t trust these handsome chic men.”

Rolling his eyes and ignoring their comments, Jaebum started to describe the appearance of the boy he met yesterday to the other three. Jinyoung’s eyes widened in realization as he had an idea to who the boy might be.

“Does he have three earrings on one ear?” Jinyoung asked, touching his ear for emphasis.

Jaebum tried to go through his memories of yesterday and nodded with a bit of uncertainty.

“That’s Youngjae, then,” Jinyoung concluded firmly

Having finished copying the homework assignment, Mark passed the paper back to Jinyoung as he commented “Oh, I know Youngjae. He’s friends with Yugyeom and Bambam so I see him sometimes when I hang out with them.”

“He’s that cute otter-like kid, right?” Jackson said looking like he was thinking “I’ve seen him around school.”

Jaebum was silent. He was surprised that everyone seemed to know Youngjae except him and he felt a bit guilty about it. Still stunned, he asked loudly in disbelief “…Am I seriously the only one who didn’t know him…”

The others gave him disapproving looks and Mark and Jackson got up to leave since break time was ending. Once those two left, Jaebum also got up to leave.

“Where are you going? It hasn’t even been that long since you got here.” Jinyoung said

Jaebum muttered that he was going to get some food, to which Jinyoung gave a wave of his hand to, and left the classroom. He glanced around the hallways for teachers and then made his way off the school grounds and towards a nearby convenience store. Once he was inside he looked around at the selection and grabbed some random snacks before something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was a rack of umbrellas that looked similar to the umbrella that Youngjae gave him yesterday. After a moment’s deliberation, Jaebum grabbed one that was the same color as Youngjae’s and went to the register to pay for the items.

Walking back to the school, Jaebum hoped that he would be able to meet Youngjae soon so that he would be able to give him this new umbrella while passing it off as the old one. _If I give him this new one, he won’t even know the difference and I won’t have to tell him that the old one broke_ , Jaebum reasoned with himself as he arrived to the school.

As he walked through the corridors, trying to find a place where he could eat without getting caught by a teacher, he suddenly saw a door ahead his path open and to avoid being caught, he quickly turned into a nearby hallway to hide. Seeing that the hallway led to a door to the stairs, he quietly opened the door and made his way up the stairs, wondering to himself why he hadn’t ever found this place before. Arriving near the top of the stairs, he saw a figure with their back turned towards him, resting their head on a small pillow.

 _Sleeping?_ Jaebum wondered to himself _Here?_

He continued to look at the figure from a distance, until he felt that he recognized who it was that was sleeping on the landing. He quickly walked up the stairs towards the person and stepped over their sleeping body and squatted on the ground and looked down at the boy.

 _This is him right?_ Jaebum asked himself as he looked at the boy’s face and poked him on the cheek to wake him up.

“You’re Youngjae, right?” Jaebum asked as Youngjae’s eyes slowly opened.

Youngjae groans as he blinks a few times before his vision clears and he sees someone in front of him and lets out a startled voice in surprised. He pushed his upper body up with his hands and is now eye level with Jaebum who was squatting in front of him. Youngjae looked around himself confirming his surroundings and then looked back in confusion at Jaebum.

 _What’s he doing here? I wasn’t drooling, was I?_ Youngjae thought in a flustered panic as he nervously wiped his mouth with his hand.

Jaebum watched Youngjae patiently before reaching into the plastic store bag and pulled out an umbrella before holding it out towards Youngjae.

“Thanks for yesterday,” Jaebum said “You can have it back.”

Youngjae looks at the umbrella and then reaches his hand out to receive it “Oh. No problem, thanks,” he says, taking it into his hand and stifling a cough and clearing his throat.

“You’ll catch a cold sleeping here, it’s cold,” Jaebum advised, noticing Youngjae’s coughing.

“Huh?” Youngjae said loudly before catching himself and with a laugh agreed with what Jaebum suggested “Oh yeah, I probably already caught a cold from sleeping here, haha.”

Jaebum hummed in response as he sniffed loudly.

“Are you sick?” Youngjae asked worriedly to which Jaebum’s eyes widened as he shook his head in quick denial.

“No absolutely not of course not,” Jaebum spoke quickly, avoiding eye contact “It’s just—allergies, you know? It’s dusty here.”

Youngjae nodded his head in understanding “Yeah, I guess it is.”

There were a few moments of silence between them, with Youngjae staring at Jaebum while Jaebum looked downward before speaking again.

“So you’re name is Youngjae right?” Jaebum asked, repeating his question from earlier, looking straight into Youngjae’s eyes.

“Yeah that’s me.” Youngjae responded with a smile and Jaebum responded with a wordless smile.

There was another long pause where they just stared at each other. Youngjae, feeling nervous, grabbed his pillow and the umbrella and quickly stuffed it into his school bag as he got up to leave.

“I’m going to head back to class now,” Youngjae said in a rush as he made his way down the stairs and turned back to look at Jaebum “See ya.”

Jaebum waved his hand bye as he watched Youngjae nearly stumble down the stairs before regaining his footing. Youngjae paused and looked back to Jaebum and when he noticed Jaebum was still looking at him, his face turned bright red and he faced forward and hurriedly went down the stairs. Jaebum put his hand to mouth as he felt his face break into a smile and thought to himself _Youngjae… he’s seriously too cute._


	2. Continuation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A couple days after last chapter. Are there any developments? Who knows.  
> We should probably give some thanks to Mark and also to our favorite chaperone Jinyoung.

Jaebum walked into the classroom just as lunch had started and made his way towards his desk around the area where Jinyoung, Jackson, and Mark were already seated. Jackson grinned as he noticed him coming and started clapping his hands in applause and the other two next to him followed suit. Jaebum played along to the teasing and nodded his head in improvement of the applause earning cheers from the three and gave a spin before sitting down and their applause ended.

“Welcome back from your two day vacation, Jaebum,” Mark said with a grin.

“Oh how we missed you,” Jinyoung said in a purposely monotone voice before turning his attention to his phone.

“This is such a touching reunion,” Jackson said with a hand to his heart and dabbed at nonexistent tears in his eyes.

Jaebum gave a forced smile in response to their dramatics and enunciated his words as he spoke “I was sick,” and then leaned back in his chair “I feel great now though,” he said comfortably.

“Do you want notes on what you missed in class?” Jackson asked him

“You took notes?” Mark questioned with a raised eyebrow

“No,” Jackson clarified proudly “But I can get him notes.”

“No thanks. I’ll be fine,” Jaebum assured him “Probably.”

Jinyoung’s phone vibrated loudly and as he was about to respond to the notification, Jackson took the phone from his hand. Jinyoung stared at his now empty hand.

“Who have you been talking to this whole time?” Jackson asked, opening the message.

“Why ask after you already took my phone?” Jinyoung responded with a sigh.

“Oh it’s Youngjae,” Jackson noted, ignoring Jinyoung’s remark.

Jaebum sits up straight at the mention of Youngjae and watches attentively in silence as Jinyoung takes his phone back from Jackson.

“Yeah he was asking me if he should skip out on the rest of classes to go hangout with Bambam or if he should stay to take a quiz,” Jinyoung explained as he typed a message on his phone.

Leaning forward and putting his chin in his hand in an attempt to appear casual, Jaebum hummed and spoke in a neutral voice “So what’d you tell him?”

“Well, I told him that if he thinks he’ll do well on the quiz that he should stay,” Jinyoung responded and then his phone vibrated again and Jinyoung reported on the result “He said he’s leaving.”

Jaebum lifted his head from his hand and crossed his arms as he spoke with uncertainty “Uh, well shouldn’t he wait until lunch is over to leave?”

“…Why?” Jinyoung asked him with a confused look on his face.

Jaebum uncrossed his arms but then crossed them again awkwardly as he stuttered through an excuse in an attempt to convince them that there was no reason, that it was just a random comment, and he felt the three of them stare at him in an uncomfortable confusion.

“Where are they going?” Mark asked as he turned to Jinyoung, but still keeping an eye on Jaebum.

Jinyoung scrolled a bit on his phone and answered him “Said they were gonna go get some food first.”

“Tell them to wait for me,” Mark said as he got up from his chair “I’m going, too.”

Jinyoung nodded and sent the message as Jaebum stared wide eyed at Mark.

“Uh. You’re going, too?” Jaebum asked in a slightly anxious voice.

“Yup,” Mark gave Jaebum a cheeky smile before he made his way out of the classroom and said his goodbyes to the others.

Mark took his time leaving the school, walking leisurely through the halls and ignoring the tired sounding warnings to not ditch class from a teacher on patrol, until he saw Bambam and Youngjae waiting for him. Bambam noticed Mark first and gave a short complaint about how long they waited for him and then Youngjae turned to greet Mark. Seeing Youngjae, Mark laughed to himself as he remembered Jaebum’s awkward reaction from earlier.

“What’s so funny?” Youngjae asked

Mark took another brief look at Youngjae before chuckling to himself and waved his hand dismissively, to which Youngjae shrugged at and the three of them continued to walk together towards a corner store to get some food.

“Hey let’s go visit our dear truant Yugyeom,” Bambam suggested as he grabbed some random snacks and drinks.

“Think he’ll be at home?” Youngjae wondered

“Probably,” Bambam replied with a shrug, taking the items to the counter and checking out.

“Do we have enough food for Yugyeom, too?” Mark asked as they left the store.

Bambam stopped walking and looked inside the bag. Youngjae and Mark peered in as well. Each of them reached inside for something.

“Ah well,” Bambam said with indifference as he shook the nearly empty plastic bag “Our presence should be enough of a gift.”

Youngjae laughed at that as he took a bite of some bread and Bambam told him to close his mouth when he ate, to which Youngjae responded by taking a bite of the food in Bambam’s hand and made a point of chewing with his mouth closed. Mark watched the scene quietly before an idea inspired by earlier came to his mind.

“Wait hold on a sec,” Mark said as he put himself between the two and raised his hand holding his phone “I’m taking a picture.”

Confused at the sudden action but following Mark’s lead, Bambam and Youngjae gave a pose for the picture and Mark pulled his hand back and inspected the image before showing the picture to Bambam.

“Look,” Mark said with a grin pointing to the picture “Youngjae’s cheeks are stuffed with food.”

Bambam laughed loudly at the picture and Youngjae gave a weak protest telling Mark to delete the picture but Mark ignored him as he sent the picture to the group chat he was in with Jinyoung, Jackson, and Jaebum. Jackson responded rather quickly with a message saying how cute it was and after a minute or two Jinyoung responded with his own picture. It was taken from an angle that showed both him and Jaebum sitting in the desk next to him; Jinyoung gave a peace sign and Jaebum, who didn’t notice the camera, stared towards the front of the class, zoned out and looking bored out of his mind. The picture was followed by a message from Jinyoung saying “have fun in our stead as we suffer through the most boring lesson”.

Youngjae had peered over Mark’s shoulder and laughed loudly when Mark zoomed in on Jaebum’s listless expression. Mark gave a dramatic flinch and held his ear and Youngjae gave a hit to Mark’s shoulder.

“First you damage my hearing and now you hit me,” Mark said with a disappointed sigh.

“Being around Youngjae can get dangerous,” Bambam nodded in agreement

“Both of you stop being so dramatic,” Youngjae said with amusement in his voice as they continued walking.

Once they made it to Yugyeom’s place, Bambam knocked the door. There was no response so Youngjae knocked on the door while loudly calling Yugyeom’s name and then when he stopped they heard footsteps approach the door from the inside.

Opening the door slightly, Yugyeom glared at them and with tiredness in his voice said “I didn’t invite you guys.”

Mark gave Yugyeom a bright smile as he pushed his way through the doorway and reached his hand to Yugyeom’s head and ruffled his hair. Youngjae followed in after him raising a hand in greeting and then Bambam went in, noisily sipping a box of milk and gave a nod to Yugyeom. Yugyeom sighed loudly in defeat, closing the door after they all came in and tried to fix his hair as he followed them to his room.

“Have you been playing games in the dark all day?” Mark asked as he went into Yugyeom’s room, turning on the lights.

“That’s the best way to play them,” Youngjae said as he sat himself on Yugyeom’s bed, leaning his back against the wall.

“Hey let’s play against each other, Yugyeom,” Bambam suggested as he already grabbed a controller and was setting up the game.

“Yes everyone please make yourselves comfortable; don’t be shy,” Yugyeom said to no one in particularly as he sat down on the floor next to Bambam, grabbing a controller.

“Oh I’ll play against whoever wins,” Mark said as he sat near Youngjae but on the edge of the bed, ignoring Yugyeom’s comment.

After some time passed, with Bambam continuously saying “wait Mark you can have your turn after I play just one more time; I know I can win this time”, Youngjae’s phone battery ran out while he was watching a trending video. He let out a quiet frustrated voice and tapped his finger against his now dead phone as he glanced at Mark.

“Mark-hyung, can I borrow your phone? Mine died.” Youngjae asked and Mark nodded as he tossed his phone behind him to Youngjae.

Youngjae catches the phone and his thumb hovers over the browser app for a moment before looking back at Mark for a moment to make sure he wasn’t paying attention to him and Youngjae taps on Mark’s photo album. _God, is this creepy?_ Youngjae wonders to himself. _Am I being creepy? I just didn’t get a good look at that picture from earlier_ , he reasons to himself as he looks at the picture Jinyoung send Mark earlier and bites on his lip to stop from smiling as he zooms in on Jaebum. _And it’s not like anyone will notice if I look at other pictures here right?_

Bambam lets out a frustrated yell as he lost yet another round and Youngjae jolts up in surprise. Yugyeom chuckles proudly and before Bambam can say anything, Mark already moved to take the controller from his hand and used his body to shove Bambam from his spot on the floor. Once they settled, Youngjae gave into the temptation to look at other pictures and scrolls through images and taps on a blurry picture of Jaebum. The picture was taken way too closely and even though the picture is blurry, Jaebum clearly has a look of irritation on his face. Youngjae fails to hold back his laughter and laughs loudly at the image.

“What are you laughing at?” Bambam asked as he jumped on the bed to sit next to Youngjae.

Youngjae gasps and chokes on his breath in surprise before deciding to feign ignorance with a simple “What.”

Bambam grabs Youngjae’s wrist that’s holding the phone and Bambam pulls it towards himself so he can look at the image. Youngjae lets out a surprised sound and quickly pulls his hand back from Bambam and locks the phone.

“Isn’t that Mark’s friend?” Bambam questioned after glancing at the image before Youngjae pulled his hand back.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Youngjae denied, putting the phone to his chest.

Bambam made a confused and slightly frustrated face in response and spoke in an exasperated voice “Just let me see.”

Bambam reached for the phone but Youngjae turned his body away from him. There was a moment’s pause before Bambam reached for it again and Youngjae moved his hand holding the phone at a distance away from Bambam. Youngjae and Bambam held eye contact with each other for a moment, anticipating the other’s next move, and Bambam lunged forward at Youngjae. Things escalated rather quickly and Youngjae and Bambam were soon essentially wrestling each other for the phone.

“Hey hey, be quiet.” Mark said to them without taking his eyes away from the screen but Youngjae and Bambam ignored him and continued noisily battling for the phone.

“Can you two shut up?” Yugyeom whined loudly “I can’t focus on the game like this.”

Just as Yugyeom finished voicing his complaint, his controller vibrated violently as a message on the screen signaled Yugyeom’s defeat. Letting out an annoyed yell, Yugyeom got up and turned behind him and violently shoved Bambam off Youngjae.

“It’s you guys’ fault that I lost!” Yugyeom complained with a huff.

“But at least I won,” Bambam waved the phone in his hand at Youngjae, gloating about his victory while having seemingly completely forgotten about why he wanted the phone in the first place.

Suddenly Mark’s phone starts ringing while in Bambam’s hand and Mark gets up from the floor and takes the phone from Bambam and answers the call. Youngjae takes the opportunity to avoid mention of the original cause of the situation by grabbing a controller and telling Yugyeom he would play against him. Yugyeom grumbles a quick “fine” and Bambam makes himself comfortable on the bed as he watches them play. Youngjae mentally sighs in relief that Bambam now seemed uninterested in what Youngjae was looking at on Mark’s phone.

“I can’t hang out tomorrow. I already have plans with Jackson,” Mark said to the other person on the line and paused for a brief moment before continuing “You should invite Youngjae, though.”

Youngjae turned his head to Mark, surprised at hearing his name mentioned and asked “What about me?” Before he could get a response, Youngjae felt his controller vibrate as he received in-game damage and swore under his breath and turned his attention back to the game.

“There’s no school tomorrow, so you’re free right?” Mark asked Youngjae

Youngjae, still confused at what Mark was planning for him and also trying to focus on the game, spoke in a slightly flustered voice with every statement ending in a questioning tone “Me? Yeah? I guess? Where am I going? And with who?”

Mark spoke to the phone “Jinyoung, where are you guys going?”

“Probably a movie,” Jinyoung responded

“Movie,” Mark said to Youngjae “Oh and you’re going with Jinyoung and Jaebum.”

Youngjae’s eyes widened at this news as his controller vibrated in defeat and Youngjae turned away from the “game over” message displayed on the screen to look at Mark in shock.

“I am?” Youngjae asked loudly in disbelief.

“Oh he said he’s going,” Mark said to Jinyoung on the phone, interpreting Youngjae’s question as a statement.

“Tell him I’ll text him later,” Jinyoung said

“Jinyoung said he’ll text you later,” Mark repeated to Youngjae, who was stunned into silence, and Mark gave some words of goodbye to Jinyoung and ended the call.

 

Jinyoung put his phone into his pocket as he ended the call with Mark and said in a nonchalant voice to Jaebum, who was walking next to him on their way home, “Youngjae’s coming to the movies with us tomorrow.”

“What?” Jaebum asked loudly in surprise “Didn’t you say you were inviting Mark?”

“Yeah but he couldn’t make it,” Jinyoung explained calmly, amused at Jaebum’s panicked response “Youngjae is free, though.”

“So Youngjae is going to the movies with me,” Jaebum spoke to clarify and pointed to himself and then to Jinyoung “And you.”

Jinyoung gave a slow nod that teased Jaebum’s repeating of the obvious. Jaebum opened his mouth to ask again but Jinyoung nodded quickly again with a loud hum of agreement before Jaebum could speak.

 

The next day, an hour before their decided meeting time, Jaebum showed up in front of Jinyoung’s door.

“Why are you here?” Jinyoung asked bluntly, but opened the door to let Jaebum in anyway.

“Let me borrow something,” Jaebum responded absentmindedly as he went ahead to Jinyoung’s room.

“Uh,” Jinyoung made a perplexed face as he followed Jaebum “Sure, I guess.”

Jaebum spent a while going through Jinyoung’s closet, looking through different possible combinations of clothing and shoes while Jinyoung passed the time reading a book.

“Jinyoung this isn’t working I don’t like any of your clothes,” Jaebum said as he looked at a pair of loose fit ankle cut pants.

“Excuse you,” Jinyoung scoffed at that remark “You’re the one who raided my closet.”

“I mean I wonder if I should be dressing up more,” Jaebum put a blazer on “Do I look cooler like this?”

Jinyoung continued to read his book, not looking at Jaebum, and gave a few words of agreement. Jaebum gave a short shout of irritation at being ignored and focused on adjusting his hair. Jinyoung’s phone went off and he saw it was a message from Youngjae with two images attached. The message read “Does this outfit look better with the shirt tucked in or not tucked in” and after looking at both images a few times in consideration, Jinyoung responded to Youngjae with “loosely tucked in would look better”. Youngjae replied with a cutely worded phrase of thanks and Jinyoung checked the time, saw they still had half an hour left before they had to meet up and turned his attention back to his book.

“Jinyoung we have to leave like right now,” Jaebum said suddenly, pointing to the time on his phone.

Jinyoung gave him an exhausted look and tried reasoning “We still have like-“

“But like,” Jaebum was already making his way out “We should leave now.”

Putting his book down, Jinyoung let out a loud sigh and took in a deep breath to calm himself and then followed behind Jaebum.

They soon arrived to their meeting place in front of the movie theater, still leaving a bit of time before Youngjae would show up. Jaebum was fiddling with the rings he was wearing, moving them to different fingers and taking them off and back on again. _Should I have worn different ones or would it have been better to not wear any at all?_ he wondered to himself and then looked up from his hands to see Jinyoung glaring at him.

“Why are we here so early?” Jinyoung asked and pointed at Jaebum’s fidgeting hands “And stop messing with your stuff it’s annoying to watch.”

“It’s not that early,” Jaebum responded defensively, avoiding eye contact, and folded his hands together.

Jinyoung rolled his eyes and made a face when he saw Jaebum mess with his earrings as his eyes searched around the area. _It’s so weird to see him act like such a kid_ , Jinyoung thought to himself as he sighed already feeling drained of energy, _I feel like I’m about to chaperone a middle schooler’s date._

Jaebum froze for a second as his eyes locked on a figure a distance away and let out a sound of realization as he stood up. Jinyoung followed the direction of his gaze and turned to see Youngjae coming towards them. Youngjae had a small look of surprise on his face and started to hurry towards where Jinyoung and Jaebum were. Once he reached them, he scratched his head in slight embarrassment as he gave a quick apology for keeping them waiting.

“I thought I was showing up early, but did I get the time wrong?” Youngjae asked with a sheepish smile.

“No,” Jinyoung assured him “Jaebum just-“

“We just got here so we weren’t really waiting,” Jaebum interrupted, ignoring the amused expression Jinyoung made in his direction, and watched Youngjae smiled in relief.

After buying their tickets they made their way to the designated theater and choose their spots to sit. Youngjae’s mind raced as he wondered where should he sit, _should I go for the middle seat between them or should I sit on the outside next to only one of them_ , and then started panicking when he saw Jinyoung sit down first and realized he was running out of time to make a decision. Deciding to go for sitting in the middle, he moved to enter the row but ended up bumping shoulders with Jaebum who was entering at the same time. Jaebum muttered an apology and Youngjae touched his shoulder that made contact with Jaebum and stared at him in silence. Embarrassed and losing his nerve, Youngjae entered the row and stepped past Jinyoung and sat to his left. Youngjae glanced at Jaebum and immediately regretted not taking the middle seat to sit next to him when he saw Jaebum’s lips purse together as he took the seat to Jinyoung’s right.

 _What’s that face? Is he disappointed? Or mad?_  Youngjae asked himself and started tapping his foot anxiously as he tried to think through the situation. _I should’ve at least said something just then_ , he thought regretfully to himself, _but whenever I look at him my mind just blanks_. After a while the movie started but Youngjae could hardly pay attention to the first half because he was so wrapped up in his thoughts, mentally planning how to have a proper conversation with Jaebum, so when he finally tried paying attention to the movie he was left lost as to what was happening.

“What just happened?” Youngjae asked in a whisper to Jinyoung

“Watch the movie,” Jinyoung responded shortly

Youngjae pouted to not getting an answer to his question and tried to piece together the events of the movie but continued to get more confused the more time passed. He opened his mouth to ask Jinyoung more questions but resisted when Jinyoung, who was very interested in seeing the movie, gave him a look of warning to not talk. But after a climactic scene that left Youngjae completely dumbfounded, he turned to Jinyoung in desperate confusion.

“No seriously what was that just now?” Youngjae asked in a loud whisper and Jinyoung sighed.

“They managed to figure out the mystery that the movie opened with,” Jaebum explained leaning forward a bit to speak across Jinyoung.

“What was the mystery the movie opened with?” Youngjae asked quietly, leaning on the arm rest he and Jinyoung shared.

Jaebum started to explain but Jinyoung, frustrated from people speaking across him, raised a hand telling them to stop talking and turned to Youngjae.

“You’re switching seats with me,” Jinyoung stated and lifted up the arm rest Youngjae was leaning on, got up, shoved Youngjae into his previous seat, sat down in Youngjae’s previous seat, and put the arm rest down again. Youngjae and Jaebum stared blankly at Jinyoung and then looked at each other to share a look of amusement at having managed to irritate Jinyoung.

As the final scene of the movie was taking place, Youngjae leaned close to Jaebum’s ear to ask a question but still kept his eyes on the movie to make sure he didn’t miss any new developments.

“Who was that character again?” Youngjae asked in a low voice

“Oh that’s—“ Jaebum turned his face toward Youngjae to answer his question and froze when he realized how close their faces were to each other. He stared in silence as he watched Youngjae’s eyes move from the movie screen to Jaebum in expectation for an answer to his question. Jaebum’s face heated up when Youngjae met his eyes and turned away in embarrassment when Youngjae’s eyes widened in surprise at his reaction.

“I forgot,” Jaebum said awkwardly, still red faced as he felt Youngjae stare at him.

“Oh,” Youngjae responded, blushing slightly, having caught Jaebum’s embarrassment.

Both Youngjae and Jaebum watched the movie end without saying anything else to each other, just having sat with flustered nervousness, while Jinyoung was thoroughly engaged in the movie till the end. The three of them left the theater once the end credits started playing and Jinyoung started giving an unsolicited review of the movie to the two of them.

“So I think there was a bit of wasted potential there,” Jinyoung rambled as he continued to speak of the movie, crossing his arms in slight disappointment.

“Yeah,” Youngjae nodded, not paying attention to anything Jinyoung was saying.

“Uh-huh,” Jaebum agreed absentmindedly, turning his attention to Youngjae walking next to him. Jaebum watched as Youngjae was fiddling with his watch, turning the dial on the side and making the clock hands spin to a time result that was likely not accurate. Taking notice of a ring Youngjae was wearing, Jaebum’s mouth opened in wonder and he impulsively grabbed Youngjae’s hand to look at the ring more closely.

“Whoa, is this a custom design? It’s so cool,” Jaebum said with excitement, using his other hand to thread his fingers through Youngjae’s from underneath to spread his hand open. Using both hands to investigate the ring without actually directly touching it, Jaebum played with Youngjae’s hand and fingers to look at the ring from every angle, extremely impressed with the design. Jaebum looked back up to ask another question and paused his actions when he saw Youngjae’s face blush a bright red with a shocked look on his face.

“…Yeah, isn’t it?” Youngjae responded with a tense laugh, still blushing, and stared at his hand in Jaebum’s grasp. Feeling self-conscious at his actions, Jaebum forced a soft chuckle as he let go of Youngjae’s hand.

“Sorry,” Jaebum apologized with a nervous smile “I got too excited.”

“Uh,” Youngjae paused for a moment before he regained his composure and laughed loudly, waving Jaebum’s apology away “No it’s fine I was just a little surprised.”

Jinyoung watched the scene with a raised eyebrow and rubbed his neck in secondhand embarrassment. Clearing his throat loudly to catch the attention of Youngjae and Jaebum, Jinyoung made a show of checking the time on his phone.

“So I think it’s about time I head home now,” Jinyoung said, preparing to head in a different direction and raising a hand in goodbye.

“Yeah I think I’ll head back too,” Youngjae smiled at both Jaebum and Jinyoung as he started to turn away from them “Thanks for inviting me it was fun.”

“Oh no problem,” Jaebum responded and gave a wordless wave to Jinyoung before calling out to Youngjae as he started to walk away “Let’s hang out again, okay?”

Youngjae gave an energetic nod to Jaebum and then walked away; increasing his pace the farther he walked until he was basically jogging. Youngjae could feel his heart beat loudly in his head and he could hardly focus on his surroundings, nearly stumbling over a crack in the sidewalk. Turning a corner, Youngjae stopped to lean his back against a wall and breathed hard through his nose. He felt his hair start to stick to his face with sweat and he felt his whole body grow hot. _I wouldn’t feel like this from just running here huh,_ Youngjae thought to himself as he sank to the ground and looked at the hand that Jaebum had held and felt himself grow red to his ears. Clutching his hand to his chest, Youngjae bit on his bottom lip hard and furrowed his eyebrows together in worry.

Hanging his head as he felt his heartbeat ring in his eardrums, Youngjae thought to himself in a dazed panic _Just what am I going to do about this?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this second chapter.   
> Anyways, I really appreciate comments and kudos and thank you to those who gave them for the first chapter.  
> See ya soon (hopefully) in the next chapter.


	3. Feelings

Taking his phone out for the third time on his way to school, Youngjae checked his reflected image on his phone and readjusted his hair minimally. Yugyeom, who was walking next to him laughed as he reached out a hand to mess up Youngjae’s hair, only for his hand to be lightly slapped away.

“Why are you so worked up about how you look today?” Yugyeom asked, still grinning as he retracted his hand.

“No reason,” Youngjae immediately responded and moved a stray hair away from his face. He glanced at Yugyeom from the corner of his eye and wondered if he should confide in him about Jaebum, _will he even say anything helpful or just tease me?_

“Oh you’re wearing your blazer inside out again!” Yugyeom gasped and pointed towards Youngjae.

Youngjae looked down at his sleeves in a panic only to find that he was wearing his blazer properly after all while Yugyeom laughed loudly at his reaction. Realizing that Yugyeom was only messing with him, Youngjae gave a weak glare in his direction before trying to subtly double check that he really wasn’t wearing anything inside out. Unfortunately he wasn’t subtle enough and Yugyeom laughed harder. _Yeah I don’t think anything I tell this guy will be received without teasing,_ Youngjae thought to himself as they approached the school entrance.

“Hey isn’t that Youngjae?” A loud voice tinged with a teasing tone rang out across the area. Youngjae jumped at the sudden noise and looked towards where the voice came from and saw Jaebum shushing someone who was laughing childishly.

“…Your friend?” Yugyeom asked, gesturing at the source of the commotion.

“Uh…” Youngjae responded weakly, unsure of what to say as he watched the scene before him.

“Jackson…” Jaebum deadpanned in a low voice with an artificial smile on his face.

“Hey I was just doing you a favor,” Jackson said through his laughter and then met eyes with Youngjae who was looking in their direction. Jackson smiled and waved at him and Youngjae waved back with a confused expression on his face. Looking back from Jackson to where he waved, Jaebum made a conflicted face before quickly leaving Jackson to run up to Youngjae.

Jaebum gave a small nervous laugh as he approached Youngjae and he could feel Jackson staring from behind him as he exchanged awkward greeting with Youngjae. Adding to his nerves, Jaebum felt another stare coming from Yugyeom and scratched his head as he tried to think of something to say.

“Um,” Youngjae spoke, his voice a little loud but quickly lowered his voice to a more natural volume “So you’re here earlier today, huh?”

“Huh?” Jaebum blanked at him, caught off guard by his observation and watched as Youngjae went red.

“Oh it’s just that I don’t normally see you around at this time,” Youngjae quickly explained, clearly flustered. _Wait, is he gonna think I was looking for him?_ Youngjae immediately thought to himself in a panic, _cuz I wasn’t like… intentionally looking for him. Was I?_

Jaebum made a face of understanding before responding “Yeah I hardly ever show up at this time it’s just that today I wanted to—“ he paused briefly and looked away before muttering “I just felt like it today.”

“Is that so?” Youngjae commented, voice trailing off as he observed Jaebum and noticed a redness to his face. _Is he blushing?_ Youngjae wondered to himself, feeling unexpectedly excited, as he took a small step forward to get a closer look at him. Jaebum looked back at him and the second they made eye contact Youngjae reflexively looked down, a nervous laugh escaping him as he peered back up at Jaebum.

Yugyeom shifted in place noisily next to them and when Youngjae looked to him, he saw him open his mouth to speak but before he could say anything, Jackson came up to them and threw an arm over Yugyeom and basically dragged him away in an overly friendly manner.

“Hey you’re Yugyeom right?” Jackson said to him as he led him away from Youngjae and Jaebum “Let’s go ahead to class; you don’t want to be late right?”

“Uh,” Yugyeom glanced back at them before responding with a knowing grin “Yeah alright.”

Jaebum and Youngjae watched them go ahead and once they were out of sight they looked back to each other and smiled at each other politely. Thinking about what he could talk about, Youngjae fiddled with one of his earrings nervously, _maybe I’ll just say I’m going ahead to class now_ …

Suddenly Youngjae felt himself shoved forward a bit, and heard a short apology from the student who bumped into him. Muttering an apology for being in the way, Youngjae took a look at his surrounding and saw that as the time for class to start was approaching, there were a larger number of students arriving and that Youngjae and Jaebum were obstructing their path by just standing there. Feeling slightly embarrassed, Youngjae prepared to say a goodbye to Jaebum and rush to class but Jaebum placed a hand on Youngjae’s lower back and started to guide him forward.

“Let me walk you to class,” Jaebum said as they entered through the building’s main doors.

Trying to appear as calm as possible, Youngjae made a sound of agreement and told Jaebum where his classroom is and tried not to think about how Jaebum’s hand was still resting against his back. As they walked and made idle trivial talk, Youngjae became conscious of every action he made, wondering if his back was arched against Jaebum’s hand this entire time and if it would be more natural to slouch a bit. _But wait if I make any sudden movements wouldn’t he realize he’s still touching me and would let go,_ Youngjae asked himself and then started to wonder if Jaebum even realized or if he even cared. As he tried to analyze the situation, Jaebum’s hand moved from Youngjae’s lower back to rest more naturally on his waist and Youngjae restrained himself from giving a reaction.

_What’s with this? Is he this touchy with all his friends?_ Youngjae thought over to himself in his head and started giving absentminded monosyllable responses to Jaebum as they made a turn and came closer to Youngjae’s classroom. _Isn’t this how couples would normally walk with each other?_ Youngjae titled his head slightly in thought _I wonder if we look like a couple_. He pursed his lips together absentmindedly, _wouldn’t it be nice if we did?_

“Ah!” Youngjae froze in place as he exclaimed and gave a look of shock to Jaebum. _Why am I even thinking about us as a couple?_ Youngjae thought helplessly as he blushed when he realized how strange his actions must have appeared as Jaebum stared blankly at him.

“What?” Jaebum asked quietly and pulled his hand away from Youngjae’s waist, stopping in place as well.

Trying to quickly think of an excuse to explain his behavior, Youngjae suddenly gave a wide smile as he threw an arm around Jaebum’s neck and avoided looking at Jaebum’s surprised expression.

“… Actually why don’t you let me walk you to class instead?” Youngjae suggested with a laugh and started pulling Jaebum in the opposite direction they were walking in.

Once Jaebum’s initial surprise at Youngjae’s sudden action went away, he became aware of the uncomfortable pressure Youngjae was applying on his neck as he led him away from Youngjae’s classroom.

“What, you remembered you got a test you’re trying to avoid or something?” Jaebum asked with a grin as he took Youngjae’s hand in his own to guide his arm to rest on his shoulder rather than tightened around his neck.

“Huh?” Youngjae said with a confused look on his face before nodding his head vigorously in agreement and continued speaking in a stiff voice “Oh yeah, yes that’s why definitely.”

As they walked, Jaebum loosely held Youngjae’s hand that was draped over his shoulder but Jaebum felt himself tense when he felt his hand start to get wet from the warmth where their hands met and out of self-consciousness he let go of Youngjae’s hand. _Wait, was it my hand that was sweating_ , Jaebum questioned himself as he subtly wiped his hand against his pants, _maybe it was Youngjae’s?_ Jaebum glanced at Youngjae and gave him a curious look as he tried to come to a conclusion in his mind about the past moment. When Youngjae realized he was being stared at, he looked at Jaebum and slightly titled his head with an expectant look of “did you say something” written on his face. Briefly startled that he was caught staring, Jaebum found himself unable to say anything as Youngjae watched him and felt an anxiousness creeping up his spine. Jaebum gave a small shake of his head with a tight smile to Youngjae as he thought; _yeah it was definitely my hand that was sweating_.

After some mundane small talk and sporadic periods of silence between Youngjae and Jaebum, they reached Jaebum’s classroom with about a minute to spare until class officially started. Jaebum felt Youngjae’s arm around him jolt and Youngjae gave a sheepish laugh as he pulled his arm away from Jaebum.

“Anyways,” Youngjae said loudly as he clasped his hands together, “See ya later.”

Jaebum gave an amused grin at the abruptness of Youngjae’s goodbye and once Jaebum responded with something similar, Youngjae basically broke into a run away from the classroom. Slightly confused but also entertained by his actions, Jaebum entered his classroom with an amused sigh.

“Wow what a gentleman you got there walking you to class,” Jinyoung commented in a voice of fake admiration as Jaebum took his seat next to him.

Jaebum ignored his comment as he placed both of his hands on his desk and stared at them for a moment before putting his face in his hands and giving a short kick to the air as he held back a frustrated yell. Releasing all the tension in his body, Jaebum felt like melting into his desk as he spoke without looking up.

 “I feel like that guy could send me to an early grave,” Jaebum said

“That guy?” Jinyoung asked, though he already knew who Jaebum was referring to.

Just as the time for class to start came, the teacher entered the classroom and told everyone to quiet down for the lesson. Jaebum didn’t even bother trying to feign interest during class, blatantly using his phone without even looking up. Tapping and scrolling without much thought, Jaebum recalled how Jinyoung had Youngjae’s contact information and how it seemed they were in contact with each other frequently. Jaebum scrolled through his contact list and confirmed what he already knew: he didn’t have any way to contact Youngjae himself. Slouching in his desk with a quiet breath of disappointment, Jaebum was briefly filled with a sense of jealousy towards Jinyoung for being able to interact so naturally with Youngjae. _What do I gotta do to get closer to Youngjae?_ Jaebum then turned to look at Jinyoung. _Since when have they known each other anyway?_ Jaebum thought with irrational bitterness as he stared at Jinyoung. Jinyoung glanced at him and Jaebum narrowed his eyes in a weak glare to which Jinyoung responded to with an exaggerated face of disgust as he turned away.  

Jaebum’s head was in a daze for the rest of lessons until lunch time when the clatter of the students brought him back to reality. Bracing himself to take initiative, Jaebum noisily got up from his desk and thought with resolve, _I’ll just ask him for his contact info right now_.

“Oh?” Jinyoung commented with amusement “You’re going somewhere else for lunch?”

Jaebum gave a nod and made his way out of the classroom. Seeing Mark and Jackson walk into the room, Jaebum raised a hand in greeting to them as he left the classroom. Jaebum unconsciously increased his walking pace, smiling a bit from excitement, as he walked towards he suspected Youngjae would be at this time. _He’ll probably be there again, right?_ Jaebum thought fondly, remembering when he caught Youngjae sleeping on the stair landing.

Once Jaebum found the entrance to the unfrequented stairs, he took a deep breath to calm his nerves and quietly opened the door incase Youngjae was sleeping again. Jaebum quickly scanned the area and stood dumbfounded.

“Huh?” Jaebum said after looking all over the stairwell and slouched, feeling defeated “He’s not here.”

 

“You guys need to help me!” Youngjae whined loudly, throwing his head back in frustration and covering his face with his hands.

“With what?” Yugyeom asked, resting his chin on his hand and taking a sip of his milk.

“Oh?” Bambam leaned forward in interest on the desk where they were seated for lunch “Is there finally some exciting news to hear from your life?”

Youngjae spread his fingers apart to look at the ceiling and mumbled something quietly.

“Huh?” Yugyeom and Bambam questioned in unison, not hearing what Youngjae muttered.

Turning his gaze to look towards them, Youngjae felt his face grow hot behind his hands as he spoke, “Can you guys give me some advice… about someone?”

“Do you mean like,” Bambam said, the corner of his mouth turning up in amusement “Romantic advice or something?”

Youngjae avoided eye contact and remained silent. His silence was enough confirmation for Bambam and Yugyeom and they turned to each other and jeered loudly, shaking each other in obnoxious excitement, while Youngjae felt his face get redder by the second. After settling down, Bambam cleared his throat while suppressing a laugh while Yugyeom tried to hide his grin behind his hand.

“We’re all ears,” Bambam said, gesturing for Youngjae to speak.

“Yeah go ahead,” Yugyeom added.

Youngjae slouched in his seat as he reflected on the thoughts that have been going through his head lately and tried to organize it to form a direct question that could be given advice. _I knew that I was conscious of him but I don’t know what I should do about it,_ he thought to himself, _should I even do anything about it?_ Youngjae thought back to this morning and the excitement he felt at the possibility of developing a different relationship with Jaebum. Running his hands through his hair, Youngjae let a breath out through his nose as he mustered up the courage to voice his question out loud.

“…How do you know if you have a chance with someone?” Youngjae asked after a brief pause.

Yugyeom hummed in contemplation, tapping his finger to his chin before responding “Well shouldn’t it just be kinda obvious to the both of you?”

Youngjae stared at him blankly, unsatisfied with the answer, but figured this was better than nothing and went along with Yugyeom’s response.

“And how do you know if it’s obvious?” Youngjae said with a sigh.

Yugyeom looked to Bambam for help on responding and Bambam put made a few dramatic hand gestures as he spoke.

“Well if you don’t know whether you have a chance or not, then someone has to take initiative and see how their advances are responded to,” Bambam explained “And if you want to know as quickly as possible, then I suggest you be the one to make a move instead of waiting around.”

Yugyeom made an impressed sound at Bambam’s thorough answer and Bambam leaned back in his chair with a smug expression. Youngjae crossed his arms as he thought back to all his interactions with Jaebum and tried to view them in an objective manner. _Offering him my umbrella out of nowhere was pretty bold of me, right?_ he thought, tilting his head, _but I chickened out of asking him to share… and then I caught a cold from walking in the rain_. Youngjae felt like sneezing at the memory. _That time at the movies too, I was too hesitant to sit next to him in the first place_. Youngjae hung his head, depressed at realizing how many times he’s left things up to other people.

“I’m not too sure I’ve been doing so well with taking initiative,” Youngjae said with a pout.

“Then start right now,” Yugyeom suggested but Youngjae made a conflicted face at that.

“But how am I supposed to have the confidence to if I don’t have any idea how he feels about me,” Youngjae complained “Like what if he’s not interested at all and I just make him uncomfortable?”

“Be a man,” Bambam scolded but then added “You could ask his friends, though.”

At that suggestion, Youngjae perked up and suddenly got up from the desk, chair squeaking loudly as he grabbed his bag and made his way out. He didn’t bother saying anything to Yugyeom and Bambam, who were making dramatic sounds of interest as they watched him leave.

Youngjae quickly made his way to a different classroom and once he arrived, he stood near the doorway with hesitance. Taking both a peek in the classroom and around him, Youngjae breathed a sigh of relief once he confirmed Jaebum wasn’t around which made his situation easier. Hands gripping onto the door frame, Youngjae peeked into the classroom. Once he spotted Jinyoung he strained his eyes to stare at him with as much force as he could, trying to draw his attention with nonverbal communication. Jinyoung was engaged in a conversation with Mark and didn’t notice Youngjae’s stare yet, so Youngjae tightened his grip on the door frame and squinted his eyes into a glare. Eventually, Jinyoung happened to glance in his direction and was visibly taken aback at being stared at so strongly. After a moment of expressing his obvious confusion, Jinyoung sighed and walked up to Youngjae.

“In case you’re looking for—“ Jinyoung started.

“Uh no,” Youngjae interrupted and spoke quietly “I actually need to talk to you about something.”

Jinyoung raised his eyebrows at the request and then looked over his shoulders back to Mark and Jackson who were leaning towards them in an attempt to eavesdrop. Putting a hand on Youngjae’s shoulder, Jinyoung led him away from the classroom towards the library.

“Let’s talk somewhere else,” Jinyoung said as he walked with Youngjae.

Jinyoung watched Youngjae, who seemed more timid and quiet than usual, and mentally prepared himself for whatever conversation they were going to have. Youngjae was looking down as they walked and Jinyoung ruffled his hair, expecting a reaction from him, but Youngjae didn’t even seem to notice. Jinyoung looked away from Youngjae to check around if there were any teachers around; lunch was close to ending and it was likely that any teacher who caught them right now would send them back to class. Proving his predictions right, he could hear a teacher scolding a student from a distance away and Jinyoung pulled Youngjae to a quicker pace with the hand he still had on his shoulder. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, Jinyoung saw that the student who got caught was Jaebum and Jaebum noticed him as well. After sharing a second of eye contact, Jinyoung moved his hand to wrap around Youngjae and gave the dumbfounded Jaebum a smug smile. Jaebum moved to follow after them, but had his path blocked by the teacher and Jinyoung chuckled at his helpless expression.

“What’s so funny?” Youngjae asked in a confused tone, looking up from the ground to Jinyoung.

“No it was nothing,” Jinyoung dismissed with a small laugh and Youngjae hummed in response as he looked back to the ground, appearing deep in thought.

Once they got to the library, which was now basically empty, Jinyoung sat across from Youngjae at a table and waited patiently for him to start talking. After stuttering a bit and shifting around in his chair restlessly, Youngjae folded his hands and sat up straight in a formal matter.

“So I wanted to ask you a couple things about Jaebum-hyung,” Youngjae finally said, face a bit pink.

“As expected,” Jinyoung responded and watched with amusement as Youngjae’s face became a deeper red, “so what do you wanna know?”

“So,” Youngjae paused and let out a breath he was holding “Jaebum-hyung has like, feelings, right?”

“Uh,” Jinyoung made a face as if he was contemplating his answer in a teasing manner “I would hope he’s capable of emotions, yes.”

Youngjae ignored his teasing and pressed forward with his questions, “So like do you know what he thinks about, uh, me?”

“I’m sure you should have an idea about how he feels about you.” Jinyoung said in a neutral tone.

“Are you insinuating he hates me?” Youngjae exclaimed loudly, a look of shock on his face.

“No!” Jinyoung shouted, visibly frustrated.

“Then why’d you say it like that!” Youngjae said in a highly offended tone and leaned back in his chair.

Jinyoung took a deep breath, trying to calm the situation, before speaking again.

“Ok,” Jinyoung said in refreshed calm tone “let me just ask: do you like him?”

Youngjae squinted at Jinyoung in suspicion before responding in an accusatory tone “Do you like him?”

“No!” Jinyoung shouted again, putting his hands to his head in frustration “Youngjae!”

Youngjae gasped and put a hand to his mouth in poorly acted dramatics “Do you like me?”

Jinyoung glared at him with a tense silence and Youngjae gave a quiet apology before saying he’ll speak seriously now.

“Fine so it’s probably you know,” Youngjae made a vague gesture “that.”

“That?” Jinyoung asked, copying the gesture.

“You know like emotional… romantic… other,” Youngjae struggled to get his words out as he tried to use his hands to explain and spoke in a quiet voice “…desires…”

Jinyoung titled his head at Youngjae’s words “So you like hi—“

“Don’t say it!” Youngjae leaned forward and shushed Jinyoung, then realizing how loud his voice was, Youngjae spoke lowly as he covered his face with his hand “I’m embarrassed.”

Jinyoung, catching Youngjae’s embarrassment and feeling uncomfortable in the awkward atmosphere, scratched his head and muttered a goodbye as he got up from his chair. As he moved to head back to class, Youngjae grabbed his arm and made a pleading expression. Jinyoung sighed and remained standing where he was, looking down at Youngjae.

“Wait can you just tell me if he would ever possibly maybe consider—“ Youngjae said in a panicked tone but was interrupted when Jinyoung grabbed his hand and leaned down to him.

“You know what’s the one way to know if Jaebum likes you?” Jinyoung asked and when Youngjae shook his head no, Jinyoung continued to speak with clear pronunciation “ask him.”

Youngjae put his hands to his face and muffled a frustrated and embarrassed scream. Jinyoung, now free from Youngjae’s grip, gave a pleasant wave and said he’d be heading back to class and left ahead of Youngjae. Once he heard the door of the library slam shut, Youngjae checked the time on his phone and with a loud sigh, got up from his seat and paced around the library to settle his nerves. _There’s no way I can ask Jaebum-hyung anything like that directly_ , Youngjae thought to himself as he anxiously picked at his lips, _so what Bambam said is that I gotta make it clear I like him right? Like with my actions?_

“How the fuck am I supposed to flirt with him?” Youngjae muttered to himself.

 Youngjae dwelled on the topic for a while, alternating between pacing around the library and pausing to stand and mutter to himself, until eventually the door of the library opened and groups of students poured in. Checking the time on his phone again and now becoming aware of the clatter of students in the halls, Youngjae realized it was break time. Grabbing his bag, he ruffled a hand through his hair, feeling mentally exhausted.

“Oh Youngjae?” a voice from a student entering the library said and Youngjae turned to see it was Mark “Where are you going?”

“To sleep,” Youngjae responded with a yawn “I’ve done too much thinking today.”

“Oh yeah?” Mark spoke while looking down at the phone in his hand and then smiled at Youngjae “Sleep well.”

Youngjae gave a nod of his head and rubbed at his eyes as he walked to his usual sleeping place. The break wasn’t very long so he figured he might as well skip the rest of his classes. _I just hope I don’t sleep too much and can go home on time_ , Youngjae thought and wondered if he should try and set alarms on his phone even though he knew he would sleep through them. Clutching his bag to his chest like a child would a pillow as he walked; Youngjae eventually arrived to the secluded area and put his hand on the door handle to go in before he heard loud footsteps stop next to him. Turning his head, he saw it was Jaebum and Youngjae’s eyes widened in surprise at seeing him.

“Hey so I was around and saw you so,” Jaebum explained, breathing hard with sweat on his forehead “uh so are you planning on skipping?”

“Well I guess,” Youngjae replied as he watched with interest as Jaebum struggled to catch his breath “Did you just have gym or something?”

“Huh? No,” Jaebum said with a confused face but then he straightened his posture and spoke quickly “Uh anyway I was thinking of skipping too, so is it cool if I join you?”

Youngjae didn’t respond with words and instead opened the door to the stairway and held it open. Jaebum remained standing where he was and stared at Youngjae with a blank expression on his face. They remained like that for a brief moment, staring at each other, until Youngjae moves and grabs Jaebum by the wrist.

“I opened the door so you could get in,” Youngjae said with a laugh and pulled him through the entrance.

“Oh,” Jaebum said with a sheepish smile and stared at Youngjae’s hand still holding onto his wrist.

Youngjae looked to where Jaebum was staring and feeling mischievous, along with remembering his previous determination, Youngjae shifted his hand to lock fingers with Jaebum. Only about a second after, Youngjae quickly yanked his hand back and laughed loudly when he saw Jaebum’s face go red. Jaebum looked at him, shocked, and Youngjae let out an obnoxious laugh as he ran ahead up the stairs to the usual landing.

Jaebum stood frozen in place, his entire face feeling hot. He nervously fiddled with his earring and could feel the warmth of his ears and realized with embarrassment that he was probably blushing to his ears and neck. Stretching his shoulders back in an attempt to calm himself, Jaebum followed after Youngjae. _What was that? Was he just messing with me?_ Jaebum thought, unsure of whether to read Youngjae’s actions as random playfulness or not.

Once he caught up to Youngjae, Jaebum breathed out through his nose, feeling drained of energy at having run there after reading Mark’s text that let him know where Youngjae was and now after having gone up all the stairs. Jaebum took a seat on the floor as he watched Youngjae try to make himself comfortable, adjusting his school bag into a replacement for a pillow.

“That can’t be comfortable,” Jaebum commented.

“It’s all I got,” Youngjae countered with a sigh.

Jaebum hummed in response but felt himself grin as he came up with an idea to get back at Youngjae for making him flustered earlier. _Just the suggestion would make him embarrassed I bet_ , Jaebum thought as he spoke.

“Well if you say that then shouldn’t I offer myself up?” Jaebum said with a cheeky grin, stretching his legs out and patting his thighs.

Jaebum expected Youngjae to turn red and get flustered and then Jaebum would laugh and reassure him he was just joking, Contrary to his expectations, Youngjae moved over to where Jaebum was and started poking at his thighs. Jaebum was stunned into silence at the unexpected action as he thought with nervousness; _wait is he seriously about to—_

“Actually,” Youngjae said and poked at Jaebum’s stomach “I think I like this better.”

Before Jaebum could even say anything, Youngjae lightly pushed Jaebum onto his back and rested his head on his stomach. Jaebum could feel Youngjae shifting around against him and then when Youngjae stopped stirring, Jaebum lifted his head to look at him. Youngjae, whose face was turned towards Jaebum, made eye contact with him for a moment until Youngjae averted his eyes and went pink in the face.

“Don’t look at me; it’s embarrassing,” Youngjae muttered, combing his hair forward with his fingers in an attempt to cover his face.

_I really didn’t expect he would take me up on my offer_ , Jaebum thought with surprise and then makes a sound of realization when he remembers something.

“Hey before you fall asleep you should give me your contact info,” Jaebum said, trying to make eye contact with Youngjae through the hair in his face.

Youngjae nodded and took his phone out of his pocket and after a couple minutes they had each other added in their phones.

“Hey can I take a picture of you for your contact picture?” Youngjae asked, though he already had his phone aimed at Jaebum and took a picture.

Jaebum let out a stiff laugh as he leaned his head back, knowing it must have been a bad picture given the way Youngjae was snickering to himself as he looked at his phone. After a few minutes Jaebum is surprised to hear Youngjae’s light breathing, signaling he had really fallen asleep.

_Doesn’t he fall asleep too quickly?_ Jaebum wondered and felt his entire body go tense with how conscious he was of Youngjae, still resting his head on his stomach. Trying to move as little as possible, Jaebum leaned up a bit, careful to not shift Youngjae and wake him up. Youngjae still had some of his hair covering his face from earlier and Jaebum raised his hand to move some out of the way but paused right before he touched his hair. _Am I about to do something embarrassing?_ Jaebum thought self consciously but continued and lightly brushed Youngjae’s hair out of his face. Seeing Youngjae’s sleeping face, Jaebum bit his lip out of nervousness as he brushed some more of Youngjae’s hair behind his ears.

Looking at Youngjae in such a calm and defenseless position, Jaebum felt embarrassed at the intimacy of the situation. He started to feel himself sweat as he became suddenly hyperaware of the sound of his heartbeat, thumping loudly in his ears and looked at Youngjae nervously, wondering if he would be able to hear it. Youngjae’s cheek was pressed against Jaebum’s stomach and with how Youngjae’s lips were slightly parted opened; it was only a matter of time until Youngjae started drooling. Jaebum stifled a laugh imagining how Youngjae would react when he woke up. Still trying to make as little disruptions as possible, Jaebum grabbed his phone and pointed the camera at Youngjae’s sleeping figure.

“Payback,” Jaebum smiled as he took a picture.

Jaebum looked at the picture he took and while it was supposed to be an attempt to get even at Youngjae who took a sudden picture of him, all Jaebum felt was defeat as he stared at the picture. _What the hell_ , Jaebum thought as he ran a hand through his hair. _What payback? There’s no way he could look bad in a picture like this._

Jaebum opened the picture in a message and considered sending it to Jinyoung and the others, but the thought of other people seeing Youngjae like this made Jaebum immediately close the unsent message and put his phone down rather violently and Jaebum looked to Youngjae to see if the noise woke him up. When he saw that Youngjae was still sleeping peacefully, Jaebum covered his face with a hand as he blushed at his own behavior. Sighing, Jaebum wondered to himself, _does this guy even know what he’s doing to me?_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello sorry that it's been such a long time since I posted something. To be honest, I was really unsatisfied with this chapter as I was writing it so I kept putting it off, but I hope it turned out ok in the end. I hope you could enjoy it and can look forward to more.   
> I appreciate the kudos/comment so far. Thank you.


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